The executed church is reviving

Recently a prayerful commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the forced resettlement of the residents of the village Velyka Vyshenka and all deported people from Yavoriv raion has taken place at Yavoriv proving ground near Lviv. The events took place near the ruins of the church of Saint Michael the Archangel with the participation of clergy, parishioners, public, children and grandchildren of people who were forced to leave their homes 75 years ago. They were deported when gardens were in blossom, the thirsty ground was sown with seeds, and generous May rains were promising a good harvest. What a tragedy it was for a peasant soul!

Today nobody will find the village Velyka Vyshenka on the map. As for the church, the villagers jointly built it on the place of the old wooden one. It was consecrated in 1927 with the participation of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, but it did not serve for people for long. In 1939 the new Soviet power decided to broaden the proving ground of the Polish Army located nearby – to the area of 42,000 hectares (the largest in Europe) at the expense of the neighboring settlements, including Velyka Vyshenka. The broadening of the proving ground was followed by a resettlement of 125,000 residents from the villages of Yavoriv raion. As a result, over 170 villages and farmsteads, 12 churches and chapels, 2 Catholic churches, 14 cemeteries, hundreds of cultural and historical monuments disappeared from the map. The residents were deported to South Bessarabia (currently the south of Odesa oblast), to the former German villages, some of them were resettled as far as to Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. The most rebellious ones were sent to Siberia. Later people returned to their ruined homes, dug earth-houses, restored the houses, but in 1950 the second wave of deportation took place.

The Church of Michael the Archangel became a fire target for tanks, armored carries, and cannons. It was destroyed in a particularly cynical way. After the shells hit the church for the first time and the domes were destroyed, they were replaced by cardboard models and the firing continued.

People started to visit the sacred object again. After Ukraine regained independence, the services have been held in this church without domes every year – mostly in May, on the day of commemoration of the victims of this dreadful deportation.

In 2012, the shooting of The Guide took place on this place, and for the decoration of the ruins several mural paintings were executed in the walls, including the Guardian Angel, which has been preserved. People who come to the church say in surprise that it is reviving. They say it is a good sign.